Well, you may see me on an episode of COPS...not really there weren't any cameras...but we did get a visit from the SCS. Killian got out while I was trying to come in from the deck with our dinner off the BBQ. He ran next door to the neighbor dog and was sniffing and playing. I ran over and grabbed the rascal's collar and he bit the neighbor dog...well his owner went ape on me about having a dangerous dog and how he's calling the sherriff and I'd best get off of his property. His children were with him in the yard antagonizing me...as I appologized and tried to expain what happened...the neighbor said if he sees Killian loose again he's shooting him...and of course by this time I'm flustered and say "Like wise..." and bring Killian home.



After about 1/2 hour I calm down and got to thinking...I never even looked at the other dog, to see if he had been hurt...so I go over to the neighbor's to check...he walks out and appologizes for having called the sherriff...I explain my theory of what happened...Killian was playing until I came close and he was "protecting me" from his dog...which we know I wasn't in danger, but you get Killian who doesn't know any better...so I looked his dog over and expained that I work for a Veterinarian and there were a couple punctures...not too bad, nothing that needed stitches. We worked it out and talked about it...and it was all cool.



NOW the interesting part...We are in the very corner of Steven's county...there isn't even a sherriff in our area, the nearest one is in Collville an hour away...he came all the way down to Suncrest for this...now if it would've been any other breed of dog...other than pitbull...they wouldn't have shown up. One of our contractors asked how to get the sherriff to show up, cuz his neighbor's dog kept coming over and fighting with his dog, and he got "there's not a leash law in Steven's County, shoot the dog." BUT because I have a DOBERMAN they showed up...c'mon seriously...this is twice that the neighbors (different ones) have called the sherriff on Killian...one woman is afraid of him because he's A DOBERMAN...not because he did anything...he ran across her driveway one day while slipping out the garage door about 3 months ago.



I can honestly say, Killian has gotten out but a handful of times...and each time he's been recovered and with this exception yesterday, has never hurt anyone or anything. BUT BECAUSE he's the breed he is...he get's penalized from the get go. C'mon now...let's be realistic...I had introduced him to the sherriff deputy, and Killian was the best boy, very polite other than being a bit nosey about sniffin the deputy out. And I doubt anything will come of it...but how is this guilty by breed any different from racism? It really proves to me how hipocrytical our society is.



Ok, my rant is over...and I think I may have to write a letter to the editor about this...hmmm

Im glad everything worked out ok!

I hear you there! I love the muscle breeds myself and know more labs, cockers, and Jack Russ. that have tried to take a chunk out of me then Pitts, Dobs, and Rotts. (I worked for 3 vets for 9 years. Unfourtunetly until you can get the public educated the opinions will never change!

I feel for you Andie. One of my pups, a lab/husky mix, looks like a wolf hybrid. It's the husky in him. My neighbors all think I have a wolf hybrid and freak out every time he's outside the yard. I already know he's been shot at because fircrackers scare the crap out of him and he's shy about loud noises. Unfortunately his brother looks likea Rotty except where Rottys are brown, Inca is silver because of the husky. It's crazy about how people's gut instinct reacts to certain breeds just because of what they've heard...it has very little to do with what they actually experience.

Alright. I don't agree with the 'aggressive' breeds getting a bad rap. I really don't. I am a HUGE dog lover and I've never been afraid of a dog in my life. But check this out...

I just got back from walking down to the corner store. I'm walking down the back alley and this dog is approaching me. Now there is no owner to be seen anywhere and I've walked down this back alley many, many times and I've never seen this dog before. I'm not 100% sure of the breed, but it was a female and looked similar to the Staffordshire Terrier. Again, those dogs don't usually intimidate me at all.

So this dog is coming directly towards me and as it gets closer (I am not reaching out to it in any way, in fact, I'm trying to move out of its way) the dog starts to snarl at me and show her teeth.

Let me tell you, middle of a back alley, fences on both sides, NO where to go and you've got a dog snarling at you while it's approaching you? I was pretty freaked out!! All I could do was move around her and keep my eye on her to see what she was going to do. I keep walking, and watching the dog, and she proceeds to follow me, snarling every so often. As I got close to the end of the alley, this guy comes to his fence (he was on the inside) and asked me if that was my dog. I said 'No, and the dog is snarling at me'. So he let me go inside his yard to wait til the dog moved on. The guy went into his house and called animal control. I stayed in the guy's yard for about 30 minutes until animal control came by and picked up the dog (who, by the way, tried to attack the animal control officers).

So, I can totally see where people would get upset about a dog being loose. ANY dog. Doesn't matter what size it is. Even if you know your dog isn't aggressive, other people don't know that. They just see a dog, running loose, with no owner to be seen. And to me, that is, and can be, quite intimidating.

And let's face it. Dobermans, German Shepards, Pit Bulls, Rotties...all those dogs have a history for being used because of their aggressiveness. Is it wrong to judge a dog because of the breed? Absolutely!!

But I can tell you that I would rather have met a toy poodle in the back alley than a pit bull.

I have to say that dobermans are one of the most misunderstood breeds. We have several regular clients at my clinic that have dobermans and they are ALL sweet as pie. Not to say there aren't bad apples out there, but for the most part they are a great breed.

And it sure doesn't get any sweeter than Killian!!

I think dobermans, pitbulls, sheppards etc have a bad rap because we have given it to them simply by how they were bred and trained.

In general dobbies and sheppards if bred and trained properly are very even tempered and easy going .. but for many years dobermans and sheppards have been bred as guard dogs so if you get an off spring of this type of breeding in the wrong hands in most cases you will get aggression ... There are now noticeable aggression and health issues with dalmations because of overbreeding .. once again humans at the root of the problem but the breed takes the heat ..

We were at the dog park one day with our labrador retriever. A small bichon frise was chasing Chuck (lab) around the park biting at his feet. He yelped and ran over behind me to get away from him. A woman came over and started to laugh stating how funny it was that the little dog was chasing the big dog. I told her that the little dog was hurting him and she wouldn't find it funny if the big dog turned around and took its head off .. I don't think she was impressed when I told her she should roll up the newspaper and hit herself in the head ..

I guess what I am saying is that it is really sad but true that stupid owners/breeders are at the root of the rap that certain breeds take .. on the otherhand I can completely understand the fear someone would have when approached by any dog unattended ..

Poor Killian...Being a dobe gives him a bad rap and that isn't fair...

Now who in the world thinks something that beautiful would harm a flea, especially with one flop ear... He was only protecting his master...

The neighbor came over this afternoon to let me know he was taking his dog to the vet so I can prepare to pay the bill...lol. He was worried that it might get infected because of going to the lake...whatever. BUT ON THE FLIP SIDE, he got to see Killian in his element...at home and he was actually impressed with how nice and well behaved Killian was/is. Now he kinda feels like a jerk...and well I don't blame him.

Now those instances where Killian was running around barking at everything...heck yeah, I could understand why someone would be intimidated, I would be intimidated with any sized dog behaving like that...but my big bad gripe is with the county...why is it that the DOBERMAN calls get a sherriff visit, when the daschund bite doesn't...the response is, "well, there's no leash law, feel free to shoot it." I think that all the "Dangerous" dog calls should get the same response, not because of the breed. Everyone is just so freaked out by the fact he's a Doberman. Grrr Or maybe it was just a slow day in the county for the sherriff and he didn't have anything better to do...who knows.

I totally agree!! It is wrong to be prejudiced in this type of situation. But the fact of the matter is, a large dog can do much more damage than a small dog. No way around that one. At least with a small dog, you can attempt to control it or defend yourself against it by fighting back. With a bigger dog, you really can't do that. Again, I'm not saying it's right. I truly feel for you, Andie. But it's the way the system works. Prejudice works in all kinds of ways and it totally sucks.

Well I have a Golden, and no one is ever afraid of him but they really should be. Because if he sees someone and I am not paying attention, he will run up to them and ram them so that they will pet him, or at other times he runs behind them and jams his head through their legs and sits there. You should see their face when he does that. He is 85 pounds so I am always afraid that he will knock some elderly person down in his excitement to get his head rubbed.

Well my two are big babys. My female is not fond of men that well, but she warms up to them pretty will. Now Dobie is a big teddy bear. They do bark a lot and we have a house next to us with an older couple who are a bit crabbby and you can tell they do not like our dobermans and Tia and Dobie do not like them they always bark but the other neighbors they love. I have great dogs. Other then the digging the yard up they are pretty great!

I am not a big dog lover, but if the dog bit another dog i mean they have a reasonable reason to call the cops.

Now seriously...how much tax money is wasted on this. If Killian were a Lab, it wouldn't have been much of an issue...and the neighbor even said so AFTER the fact. He was predujiced against dobermans. MY point is, all those reports should be handled the SAME...be it a lab or a pit..and who can tell me the #1 breed of reported dog bites in the USA? I can name the top 5, having have had to do the research to prove my point...Doberman isn't in the top 10 even...

I also think that it should be equal with every dog not just some breeds

Any breed is capable of bodily harm in the right or wrong situation. If a dog "Feels" threaten it will attack or snarl. A dog's definition of "Feeling" threatened will not be the same as ours I guarantee it.

This is also true of parrots. They will bit if they "Feel" threatened even if there is no evidence of a threat in sight. Peanut will attack me if my son gets near. Peanut feels threatened by my son, even though my son has never harmed any bird. (I believe peanut was a victim while in the pet store I retrieved him / her from.) Paulie will get aggressive out of the blue for no known reason- but I can always see a reason he might have felt threatened. Last time Mister tried to get him in the cage bare hand he got bit. The threat? Going into the cage, and he didn't want to. He is you might say one to try and get his way, but to him the cage was a threat of being locked up.

Every animal is capable of biting in the right circumstances or even the wrong.

Andie I can completely and totally understand where you're coming from. As the owner of a pit bull and a bullmastiff I have dealt with the same discrimination you are facing with Killian. I constantly worry about Mindi, our pit bull, getting out because I know for a fact my neighbors will shoot first and ask questions later. Now, Mindi is an absolute sweetheart. If she got out the neighbors biggest risk would be her licking them to death. However, she'd never be given that opportunity. They'd shoot her on sight, and they've told me as much. We had one neighbor put up a 6 ft privacy fence the day we brought her home. Now, the 140 lb great dane and the 150 lb bullmastiff behind the 4 ft chain link fence didn't worry him in the least, but the 15 lb 4 month old pit bull puppy scared the krap out of him.

I feel the same way you do. Breed discrimination is no different than racism in humans. It comes from the same mentality. Yes, be cautious around any dog you don't know, particularly large dogs that have the muscle and the power to back up their growls.

Carrie Anne, next time you are approached or confronted by a growling dog, do NOT continue to approach the animal. Stop, avoid direct eye contact, and slowly back away the way you came but do NOT turn your back on the animal. I don't care what breed it is, when a dog is standing it's ground, staring you down and growling, you continuing to approach is a challenge. You're incredibly lucky you weren't bitten or attacked. Odds are, that dog found a food supply in that alley or a nice place to sleep and fully intended on keeping it. It's really no suprise the dog attacked the animal control officer. It happens all the time and is not actually a sign of aggression. Stray dogs are often scared, injured, abused, starved, etc and here comes this strange man or woman coming at them with usually a catch pole.

I agree Andie .. I wouldn't discriminate about the breed either and I wouldn't be concerned about tax dollars when it comes to my health or the health of my pet.

I wouldn't care if the dog was a poodle .. If I or my dog was bitten by another dog that left puncture wounds I would be taking myself to the doctor or my dog to the vet. Here by law they in turn are required to notify animal control of a bite regardless of the breed.

Just edited to add: I wouldn't necessarily seek treatment for my dog if the wound was superficial and I knew the other owner and their dog being certain that the dog wasn't ill and had it's shots up to date etc ..

There was no way this dog was a stray. It was too well fed and taken care of. And it hadn't been in the alley that long either, because of what the fellow who let me in his yard said (apparently, the dog tried to go after his dog through the fence).

The thing is, is the dog didn't snarl at me until it approached me. I proceeded to walk away from it and it kept following me, snarling the entire way. So it wasn't as if I was threatening it in any sense.

Either way, it was a very dangerous situation. I'm very grateful I didn't have my kids with me, or the kids weren't walking on their own.

Just ticks me off that this dog was taken to the city pound because its owners lacked in their responsibility. They are *very* lucky this dog didn't attack anyone. Now, the dog didn't have a collar on her, but hopefully she was tatooed so her owners can be found. If no one claims her after 3 days, the City has the right to put her to sleep and they certainly will. They won't try to rehome this dog, not after the way she acted.

From what you describe this particular dog was possibly allowed to roam and had decided the alley way was her territory. Regardless of what her reason for behaving the way she did, if you or anyone else is ever approached by an unfamiliar dog, take extreme caution. Please, never ever turn your back on a strange dog. A great deal of attacks occur when the person turns to walk or run away.

It's incredibly sad that the dogs end up paying the price for the lack of responsibility on the part of the owner. Unfortunately it's a process that's repeated every day.

Andie, I'd be taking extreme measures to prevent Killian from escaping if I were you. Even though he hasn't done anything "wrong", the neighbors and law don't see it that way. If he runs over to play with the neighbors kids, and one of them gets scratched or knocked down, you'll be hearing screams of "VICIOUS DOG" and such, and you'll have a hard time defending Killian. I know you know this, but it's a situation where he could very well end up paying with his life for simply being a friendly outgoing dog. Sadly, owners of dogs like Dobies, Rotties, pitties, and bullies (to name a few) have to take almost extreme measures to control their animals. Not because these breeds are more likely to attack or "snap" or anything like that, but because of the public perception of them. You've seen first hand how people and law enforcement are much more likely to over react and file reports and what not when it's a "dangerous breed" as opposed to a lab or st bernard or what have you.

I've heard to never stare into a dog's eyes and that is all I know about danger around an unfamilar dog....So I guess I'd turn and run like ****.... No, I don't know that I would know what to do in a situation like you were in Carrie....Glad you are safe though....And like you said, no kids involved.....Wheeew....Poor doggie, bad owners..



Now Carrie-Anne, even though you may have been down that alley before, stay out of that alley girl...I don't even like the name alley......Sounds dangerous to me I guess...

Do not, under any circumstances, turn and run. It's the absilutely worst thing you could possibly do in that situation. Avert your eyes, but keep the dog where you can see him. Slowly, and calmly, step backwards. Talk in a calm, soothing voice. Don't yell, scream, wave your arms, etc. Stay calm, and slowly step backwards, while looking for something to use as a shield (garbage can or lid, a chair, broom, anything to have between you and the dog). Mainly, move slow and stay calm and NEVER EVER turn your back on an aggressive animal. If the dog approaches and you can't maneuver slowly away, stand still, don't move yell or scream, and allow the dog to sniff you. Speak slowly, softly and calmly and wait until the dog moves on. Most people (particularly men) can't accept the fact that in that moment, they are no longer in charge of the situation and the dog is calling the shots. It's kind of like being approached by a wild animal or a mugger.

This I know. I was making sure to keep an eye on her while I was walking away.



Ahhh Jewels I have to tell you that it was bright outside, and it's a family residential area. Completely safe!! Well, cept the dog But that could of happened anywhere.

The thing is is that the boys and I call it 'dog alley' because almost every single yard has a dog! And most of them will bark at you when you walk by. Actually, the guy that let me into his yard has a gorgeous German Shepard that is always barking at us when we walk by. Of course, cause his owner let me into his yard, he was a well behaved young man.



That is exactly what it felt like. Completely helpless and at the mercy of this animal, who, while not large, could of done some serious damage had she been so inclined to. It was a very humbling experience, I can tell you that much.

Thank God you are Ok and here to tell about it. Be very careful out there!

Yeah- definitely never run from a dog... practically had to tackle my brother one time when the neighbor's guard dogs wandered into our yard and he tried to run from them (which seemed to confuse them enough that we became friends after that )

Just to add to the breed prejudice- apparently I am prejudiced against toy poodles. When it was first mentioned the you would rather meet up with a toy poodle than a pit I went 'are you insane! Those little things are vicious monsters!' I never realized it before I made a comment to that effect on another forum and got pounced on. I've never met a mean pit but I got chewed up by a toy poodle when I was little... and my grand-aunt keeps getting insane rescue toys... *shudder*

That dog in the alley- I would have been worried about rabies with how it was acting. And I would have taken my dog to the vet if she got attacked and made the attacker's owner pay the bills, though I wouldn't have called the cops.